Letters to the Editor
Parking Authority bad for tourism Re: "Parking officers abused for doing their jobs well," Friday: The Parking Authority is completely out of control. I received a $51 ticket recently in South Philadelphia after being parked, literally, for only one minute.
Parking Authority
bad for tourism
Re: "Parking officers abused for doing their jobs well," Friday:
The Parking Authority is completely out of control. I received a $51 ticket recently in South Philadelphia after being parked, literally, for only one minute.
Upon returning to my car, I questioned the PPA employee regarding the double-parked cars that did not receive a ticket. She informed me that they do not ticket cars in South Philly for double-parking. She also said, "Do not tell me how to do my job."
In order to dispute the ticket, I called the PPA office and was told that the earliest appointment was available in three months, but I was "welcome to walk in." What a joke! There were approximately 60 people waiting for a hearing.
A PPA official told me on the phone that I probably received the ticket because the flashers on my car were on, and the PPA officers like to target cars with flashers. Obviously, the PPA needs to be aggressively monitored, or Philadelphia can forget about increasing tourism.
Carol A. Pasquarello
Philadelphia
Bring back
Glass-Steagall Act
The greatest threat to our national security is the ongoing failure of the federal government to enact laws that strictly regulate the U.S. financial system, specifically the banks.
President Obama and Congress should immediately reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which was the centerpiece of the banking reform regulations that were enacted by the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s.
Federal enforcement of the Glass-Steagall regulations coincided with 60 years of economic growth and prosperity. America needs banking reform laws now.
EuGene Miller
Philadelphia
Going green
creates good jobs
It's exciting to see so much interest among the trade unions in the emerging business of installing solar panels in Pennsylvania. With the rebates available through the Pennsylvania Sunshine Program and tax incentives from the federal government, solar power is about to burst forth all over the state.
These new green jobs of manufacturing and installing solar panels provide two benefits: helping to kick-start our economy, and displacing some of the dirtiest power with some of the cleanest.
Every major faith tradition teaches its followers to protect the Earth and to leave it livable for future generations. Moving to clean energy helps achieve both goals. Come on, Congress. Level the playing field for clean energy like solar power.
Joy Bergey
Pennsylvania Interfaith
Climate Change Campaign
Flourtown
Casinos also bad
for the environment
What do greenhouse gases and slot machines have in common? Both sow long-term problems in exchange for short-term gains.
We now hear long-overdue uproars about the irresponsibility of bequeathing our grandchildren an uninhabitable planet in exchange for industrial revenue. But apparently we are willing to bequeath those same grandchildren a less habitable city in exchange for government revenue. The words that come to mind are shortsighted and shameful.
Darrel Walters
Ambler
Better way to charge
for water usage
While I was pleased to see Inga Saffron covering the important work that the Water Department is undertaking to simultaneously improve stormwater management in our city and green our public spaces, I want to correct one misstatement in her June 12 article, "Attacking Asphalt."
She said the Water Department is about to add a "storm-water tax" as an incentive for nonresidential customers to reduce their impervious surfaces. In actuality, the department is restructuring how existing fees are assessed.
Under the current system, every business with water service is charged a stormwater fee. These fees are based upon water usage. But the primary strain on our overburdened sewer system is not water usage; it is impervious surface. That's why Next Great City, a coalition of 113 organizations, advocated for the Water Department to instead start basing stormwater fees on the amount of a property's impervious surface.
When certain parties objected to the fee at the Water Department's rate case proceedings and called it an unauthorized tax, PennFuture, the lead organization behind Next Great City, defended the new structure as a fee, and not a tax, because its collection is based on the burden each property places on the sewer system.
Rachel Vassar
PennFuture
Next Great City
Philadelphia
Museum's exhibit
shouldn't be missed
Congratulations to chief executive officer Ramona Riscoe Benson and the African American Museum in Philadelphia on the opening of its new permanent exhibition, "Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia, 1776-1876."
The museum, so close to Independence Mall, is often overlooked as tourists - and natives - rush from one site to another. All of us, and especially our young people, need to immerse ourselves in the many aspects of black life and history in Philadelphia, and to meet the many black men and women who have helped shaped the city's essence.
Marie Conn
Hatboro